Below Deck's Tanner Sterback Explains the Reason He Stopped Pursuing Kate Chastain

Tanner Sterback's romance with Simone Mashile is definitely heating up this season of Below Deck. The Season 7 yachties took their flirtation to the next level and finally hooked up in Monday night's episode.

But remember back at the beginning of the season when Tanner seemed to majorly be crushing on Kate Chastain? The deckhand explained why he started turning his attention to Simone as the season went on during a recent interview with Decider. “Things weren’t clicking with Kate, it felt forced and awkward but with Simone there was a nice chemistry there," he said. "We were always friendly and ourselves around each other.” 

Tanner said that he realized how much Simone liked him when she continuously checked in on him in his room when he was sick. “I was kind of hesitant about it, just because I didn’t really want to hook up with anyone on the boat,” he shared.

However, as Tanner explained in the Below Deck Season 7 After Show, above, once he found out that Simone, who "thought Tanner was fine as hell" from the moment she laid eyes on him, had feelings for him, that changed everything for the deckhand.

"Honestly, once you hear someone has a crush on you and stuff, you look at her differently. So you start to talk to her a little bit more, little bit more flirtatious, and you pick up a vibe and everything. She's a cool chick. She is a cool, cool girl. She's herself. She knows who she is, and she's fun," Tanner said. "She doesn't fake anything. She's herself. That's what I'm attracted to."

As for what really went "down" between these two, well, they still don't seem to be seeing eye-to-eye on that, as you can see, above.

We'll see the aftermath of Tanner and Simone's night of passion in an all-new episode of Below Deck Monday at 9/8c. Watch a preview, below.

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